Environmental Activist Mark Lynas On His Support of GMOs

Former president of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed and Mark Lynas meet at Keble Collage, Oxford, England. Lynas was the climate advisor to Nasheed during his presidency.

Presidency MaldivesFlickr

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This year we could be voting on an initiative requiring labeling of all food that contains genetically modified food, what critics call Frankenfood. Backers have turned in what they say are the necessary signatures to get it on the ballot.

Environmental activist Mark Lynas was an adamant opponent of genetically modified foods. He wrote in 2008, "The technology moves entirely in the wrong direction intensifying human technological manipulation of nature when we should be aiming at a more holistic ecological approach instead."

Mark Lynas was one of the first people to break into fields that scientists had planted with genetically modified test crops — and then rip them out of the ground. Ross Reynolds talks with Mark Lynas about what changed his mind about GMOs.